THE Knicks and Heat remain two bullies fighting in the schoolyard. There is no homecourt advantage. Whoever has the bigger heart and the smaller lump in his throat at the end of each bludgeoning game owns the homecourt advantage.

There are some amazing numbers to digest. The Knicks have won two of the last three playoff games in Miami, three of the last five

and five of the last eight over the last three years. During that span the Knicks’ winning percentage in Miami is better than at home against the Heat, where they are 3-3 at the Garden in the spring. Overall in the playoffs the Knicks are 6-6 in Miami while they are 5-4 at home against the Heat.

Considering all that, the Knicks are right where they want to be heading to Miami for tomorrow’s Game 5 with this series in a 2-2 death grip.

“We’re confident we can win there,” Latrell Sprewell said at Purchase College yesterday, a no-nonsense day. “We have to maintain our edge.”

Mental edge, that is – for no team has a physical edge in this series. This is now a best-of-three battle. By all rights, the Knicks could have swept Miami if the Game 1 substitutions down the stretch were more logical and if Patrick Ewing had made a free throw when the Knicks choked away a four-point overtime lead in Game 3.

That’s the way these battles go between the Knicks and Heat, blood brothers to the end. There are so many mistakes, so many heroes and villains because of the way they hammer one another. And there is always someone whining when the game is done.

Jeff Van Gundy moaned that the refs cost his team Game 3 at the Garden because Anthony Carter’s circus shot sliced over the backboard. After Game 4, when Charlie Ward exploded for 20 points, it was Carter complaining a lot of those points came in garbage time. Hey, this whole series is garbage time.

The Knicks are fully prepared to let Ward drive the garbage truck again tomorrow night. “My feeling is if they are going to double, our weakside guys are going to have to make them pay,” Sprewell explained. “And right now Charlie is definitely making them pay.”

Ward has never been better. He is shooting .568 for the series and .568 over seven playoff games. Compare that to Sprewell’s .333 percentage against the Heat or Houston’s .394 or Ewing’s .360 and you begin to understand how big Ward has been. The Knicks will need more than Ward, though, to win the series. Sprewell, for the first time in his Knick career, appears overwhelmed by the Heat’s defensive ferocity, while Houston is just beginning to show life.

“They can’t just concentrate on Latrell and Allan, Patrick and Larry,” said Ward, who loves to play in his home state. “It’s good to know you have other options, that you can go to other guys on this team. It’s about scoring, but there are other aspects of the game we have to look at, and hopefully we can continue to do well in those aspects.”

And that’s hustle, and Ward knows all about that.

“It’s a matter of being aggressive and wanting to go to the hoop,” he said. “And making plays, breaking the defense down.”

After four games, these two teams are stuck at the top of the ferris wheel waiting to see who will panic first. It’s so easy to lose your focus when you are taking a shot in the ribs or the head. That’s why going on the road tomorrow is the best thing that could happen to the Knicks. Their level of concentration grows when they are away from the Garden.

Did you know that in the five of the Knicks’ last eight playoff wins in Miami, the Knicks have won by an average 10.8 points? Only one of those five games came down to a last shot, Houston’s magical bounce last year in Game 5. In those other four victories the Knicks won by an incredible 13.2-point average. The Knicks are just another group of tourists having a grand time in South Beach.

Adversity is their teammate and makes them stronger. When life is good, the Knicks are bad. Sure, there is no way this series should be tied after four games, considering the talent discrepancy, but the Heat have brought the Knicks down to their level with great coaching from Pat Riley and an unyielding will.

“We made shots,” Ward said of the keys to the Game 4 victory. “We made open shots. We got loose balls. Hustle plays. That normally determines who wins the game. [Sunday] we got more than they got. I’m sure they’re going to make a conscious effort to do that, make those hustle plays. We just have to try to work a little bit harder at that.”

In Miami, the Knicks do work harder. Home, after all, is where the heart is – in life and in the NBA.